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New bra boutique opening in Midtown Detroit

Busted! brings lingerie to the city, featuring options for ladies of all cup sizes.

A display of the unmentionables for sale inside Busted!, the new bra boutique in Midtown.

Lee Padgett's cups runneth over.

The 44-year-old serial entrepreneur is opening her new bra boutique, Busted!, in Detroit's Park Shelton building across from the Detroit Institute of Arts – in time for Noel Night on Saturday.

If Padgett's name sounds familiar, it's because she was the proprietor of the once-popular Café de Troit. She and her husband, Patrick, ran the café from 2003-2006, when they were the only game in downtown for coffee.

In fact, my best friend, Stacy, and I vacationed in Detroit in 2003 – she from New York; me from Denver – and drove around downtown on a Saturday looking for food… any food. Finally, we landed at Café de Troit, a beacon of caffeine and community. It always stood out in my mind and was one of the memories that pulled my husband, Karl, and I here this year.

Anyway, not to make this all about me …

Lee Padgett (left) and Rhonda Evans at the semifinals of the Hatch Detroit competition in August. (Forgive my Instagramming.)

The Padgetts closed down the café not because business wasn't good -- it was -- but because Patrick, an engineer, got a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity in Germany. They packed their bags and went, but Detroit never left their hearts. In fact, after Germany they went to North Carolina, from which Lee hails. Despite the beach and warm weather and general gloriousness of a not-Michigan winter, she asked her husband to bring them home to Detroit.

"The people here, their energy is contagious," she said. "Like Matt Naimi who runs Recycle Here. It's people like him, they see a problem and they try to fix it. They try to help everyone. These people suck you back in."

But when she returned, the former chemist (really; that was the first of her many lives) didn't want to run another coffee shop. "That would be like dating your ex-boyfriend," she said.

Instead, she envisioned a bra shop. She'd been working in one in North Carolina, assisting a friend, and fell in love with helping women be their most beautiful and confident selves.

Plus, she figured, unlike in the restaurant business where "coffee emergencies" predicate 14-hour days/seven days a week, there are few "bra emergencies" other than the occasional panicked bride.

And it was just annoying to have to drive to the suburbs to buy a pair of panties or a bra.

"I just got tired of bitching about it and decided to do something about it," Padgett said.

Her husband was supportive but gave her one requirement: no loans.

A few wisps of lace for the less-endowed ladies.

So when Padgett heard about Hatch Detroit, the annual competition that comes with a $50,000 check from Comerica Bank for the winner, she entered. Busted! made it to the top 10, but she wasn't the year's big winner. That went to Batch Brewing Co., which she called a "force." "Those guys are great; and you can never have too much beer!"

The competition brought her good fortune anyway. Two investors approached her and offered to match any capital she brought to the table. That made opening Busted! possible.

Still, she is opening the store on a shoestring budget. The décor is a testament to the community spirit of Detroit: Friends and family have all donated tables and lamps to use as displays, as has Rachel Lutz, her retail neighbor at The Peacock Room.

Displayed on those tables are Padgett's small-but-well-curated selection of inventory, worth about $12,000. She has a variety of bras, from a hot pink maternity number to custom-made corsets. While those corsets, created by Sterling Heights-based Ivy's Custom Corsetry, run in the $300+ range, the bra inventory ranges from $30 to $80 and from an A to an N cup. (Don't worry if you're not sure what size you wear; Padgett offers free fittings.) Her lines of panties are from $5 to $42 and she can fit up to a size 3X.

Even though a friend told Padgett that a bra shop would never work in Detroit, that there wouldn't be enough of a market, Padgett has already reordered inventory twice. Even though she's not open officially until Friday, Padgett has been opening her doors to anyone who stops by, typically having heard about Busted! through word-of-mouth and Facebook.

Busted! will be selling custom corsets, such as this one, from Ivy's Custom Corsetry.

"We've already sold through about a quarter of the initial inventory," she said.

Based on the early response and initial projections, Padgett anticipates $100,000 in sales during the first six months. That, she said, would allow her to build the kind of bra shop the city needs: "Sales of that level would allow me to bring in enough inventory to make this place spectacular."

Busted!, located at 15 E. Kirby St., officially opens on Friday. It will also be open on Saturday for Noel Night, where Padgett will be giving away a free pair of $5 panties with every purchase. Plus, she will have other vendors in the store to create a festive atmosphere for holiday shopping.

Busted!'s regular hours will be Tuesdays-Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.